Quashnet future may be settled

The Mashpee Conservation Commission has been bogged down by the issue for over a year.

STEPHANIE VOSK

MASHPEE — The conservation commission has been bogged down by the issue for over a year.

But it's decision time, Conservation Agent Andrew McManus said.

Tonight, the seven-member commission is expected to vote on the future of the Quashnet cranberry bogs.

Two main options are being considered — find a grower to repair and cultivate the bogs or forgo the berry business and restore the Quashnet River, McManus said.

"They've been sitting there for too long, and we have to figure out what to do out there," McManus said.

From the late 1990s until 2006, the Air Force paid the town for berries from the six bogs contaminated by ethylene dibromide, or EDB, from the Otis Air National Guard Base.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the contaminant — used in aviation fuels — can cause damage to the liver, stomach, adrenal glands and the male reproductive system.

For the 2005 growing season, the military paid about $305,000, 75 percent of which went to grower Brian Handy, who leased the bogs from the town, former Conservation Agent Steve Solbo said last year.

Since then, four of the six Quashnet Bogs have tested completely free of EDB, and the last two have only minimal traces, McManus said.

Going with the berries, however, is still risky, he said — there's no guarantee buyers will want the berries even now, and it's likely a grower will have to spend significant money to bring the bogs into production, delaying any profits the town would receive.

After two years of searching for a grower, Falmouth this winter approved a contract with SK Wainio Bogs Inc. to organically farm more than 60 acres of town-owned bogs.

The town will not profit from the harvested cranberry crop for the first 10 years of the lease because Wainio has agreed to purchase and install a new irrigation system that will could cost as much as $210,000, Falmouth town officials have said.

McManus is worried about a similar deal in Mashpee.

"Ten years is a long time to not see any revenue," he said.

The restoration route may be the easier, and a more cost-effective road to follow, McManus said.

It would likely cost over $1 million to realign the river, but "there's a tremendous amount of grant money out there for projects along these lines," he said.

A restored brook trout population could even help to bring in money from recreational fishing licenses, he said.

Plymouth is currently working on restoring the Eel River using almost $2 million in grant and state funding.

The project includes re-grading cranberry bogs and planting new wetland resource areas, according to the town's Web site.

The Mashpee conservation meeting will begin at 6:55 p.m. in the main conference room at town hall.